U.S. and German authorities seize ChipMixer cryptocurrency-mixer servers

German and U.S. authorities, with support from Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, shut down the ChipMixer cryptocurrency-mixer infrastructure. Европол reports this.

As part of the investigation, law enforcement seized 1,909.4 BTC, which they valued at €44.2 million ($46.3 million).

“ChipMixer software obscured traceability of funds in the blockchain, making it attractive to cybercriminals seeking to launder illicit proceeds,” Europol’s report states.

Authorities also seized four servers containing more than 7 TB of data.

The ChipMixer platform, founded in 2017, helped launder more than 152,000 BTC (about $2.88 billion according to Europol) during its operation.

The agency said that most of these funds were linked to darknet services, ransomware programs, as well as illegal drug and weapons trafficking.

Additionally, information obtained after Hydra shutdown allowed investigators to identify a link between ChipMixer and the darknet marketplace. Law enforcement recorded several transaction chains totalling millions of euros.

The crypto mixer also helped launder money for operators of ransomware programs Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma and Lockbit.

Authorities suspect that some digital assets stolen following the bankruptcy of an unnamed “major cryptocurrency exchange” in 2022 passed through ChipMixer.

As reported in August 2022, the Ronin sidechain hacker used ChipMixer to conceal part of the withdrawn funds.